In a component mounting apparatus which performs an operation for mounting components such as a component loading apparatus used in a component mounting line, for the purpose of board identification, position sensing or inspection of mounting states, a recognition object such as the component mounted on a board or a recognition mark provided on the surface of the board and the component is imaged with a camera. At the time of imaging, illumination light is irradiated to the surface of the board by an illuminating apparatus, and the camera takes the image of the recognition object by receiving the reflected light from the recognition object. Because the reflection property of reflecting the illumination light varies with the surface property of the recognition object, to clearly identify the recognition object such as a recognition mark and the background of the image, a plurality of illumination light sources are placed at different positions as an illuminating apparatus, and the color tone of the illumination light and the irradiation direction towards the surface of the board can be changed on the basis of the recognition object. Such a structure is known (for example, referring to patent document 1). In the example shown in the patent document 1, a ring illumination light which irradiates to the substrate that is located below from the circumferential direction of the obliquely upward and a coaxial illumination light which irradiates light from the imaging direction are equipped, a luminance data of the ring illumination light and the coaxial illumination light to each recognition object are preliminarily sought as individual illumination condition, to in order that the contrast between the recognition object and the background could become best.